VMware has quietly announced it will enter the market for IT training software with what it calls “a new generation of massive open online course technology that can seamlessly scale on-demand and deliver the same engaging experience found in a physical classroom.”
The company’s plans centre on the VMware Learning Platform (VLP), software VMware already uses to run hands-on IT labs for its own staff and during its VMworld events.
As revealed in a blog post, VLP “has grown within the company to managing more than 600,000 virtual machines (VMs) per month and 120,000 VMs over five days for each VMworld, with thousands of concurrent platform users.”
In other words, it scales pretty impressively! The post, by VMware execs Anees Iqbal, Sr. and Curtis Pope, adds that the tool has “… achieved zero-downtime platform deployments, and our automated testing procedures enable us to make constant on-the-fly changes to rapidly evolve the platform as required.”
Iqbal and Pope wrote that VMware is “in the preliminary stages of commercializing the software” and that once ready it will be offered as SaaS.
There’s no word on when we can expect the product, or if VMware will take it beyond its use as a training tool for its own wares. Yet with online education taking off, and this product seemingly scaling well, VMware could have a nice little sideline here if it steps into the wider education market.
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